


loving you from far away (my love for you doesn't know any distance)

by Gemini_Baby



Series: January Prompt Event 2021 [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Banter, College Student Jason Todd, Dialogue Heavy, English Major Jason Todd, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Good Parent Talia al Ghul, Jason Todd is a literature nerd, Mother-Son Relationship, Phone Call, Talia Al Ghul is Jason's Mother Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28503204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemini_Baby/pseuds/Gemini_Baby
Summary: Jason Todd has lost a lot in his life and has many regrets. Him having found a mother figure in Talia is not one of them.OR: Jason & Talia and tired college student Jason who is bitter about his assignments.
Relationships: Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd
Series: January Prompt Event 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087832
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91
Collections: Bat Family 18+ Discord Server January Prompt Event





	loving you from far away (my love for you doesn't know any distance)

**Author's Note:**

> Written using the alternate prompt, “Mother Figure” for the January Prompt Event, run by the awesome mods and lovely people of the Batfam 18+ server

The phone rings and the ring tone makes him smile. Had it been anybody else, he would have been annoyed and if it had been a call for help or socialization, Jason’s limb would have screamed murder. But it is not anybody else. It is not someone who puts him on edge. Rather, the opposite. The person with whom he can share everything, from the darkest of things that haunt him and his dreams, the things his guts and head scream at him to do sometimes to what he had named the dog he recently adopted.

He takes the call. “Hey, T”, he says as adjusts his pillows on the bed and then sits, leaning his back on them.

“Hi, Jason. Did I catch you at the time of your rest?”

Leave it to T to call him out on not resting properly by merely hearing his voice.

“Not exactly, still an hour or two to go.”

“Expecting trouble?”

“No.”

“Expected elsewhere?”

“Not exactly. But you never know when they need the condemned Red Hood to jump in and save them or extract them.”

“Are you at least giving your eyes some rest?”

“How did you know I was not? How do you know _every time_?”

“...Call it a mother’s instincts?”

“ _Mom!”_

“Yes, Hayati?”

Jason closes his eyes. The strain on them already feels better than before. “My eyes. I am resting them.”

“Want to give your ears a rest too?”

Jason snorts. “Not really. Do you mind if I put you on hold for five minutes? I am going to get some tea.”

“I don’t mind. Never especially when it is concerned with you getting some proper rest.”

“Okay, see you soon. Or well hear you... You know. I mean you get it.”

He is a mess. Talia loves him enough to not point it out. But she never lets him live down the pill helmet either.

Talia chuckles on her end. “Yes, I get it. Go get that tea. I will get my qehwa.”

“Tea time, then?”

“Tea time, then.”

He puts the phone on the bed and hurries to the kitchen to prepare his tea. The five minutes feel like an eternity. He is eager to get back, okay? Don’t blame him.

  
  


Finally, after what feels like a lifetime, he is back. The sounds on the other side indicate that T is too.

“I am back first. I win.”

“Okay, Jay. You win.”

“How are you?”

“Sore? You?”

“A bit tired. How are your studies going?”

“Linguistics sucks. English linguistic double sucks.”

Had it been anyone else, he would have met with a reprimand of language and a dozen questions. But it’s Talia. The person he loves and respects as his mother figure. He seldom voices it. But not everything needs to be spelt out or voiced out with words. Especially when back then, before he died...it had been Sheila and her words. Jason has stopped believing in words.

And because it is his mother on the other end, she chuckles a bit. He can hear her taking a sip of her qehwa as he himself sips his tea. “How is literature faring?”

“Good in reading, writing and studying. When it comes to grading, Literature double sucks.”

“That sounds exhausting.”

“It is. But it is also exciting. We all are asked to give our interpretations of what we read. Many of us give totally different ones. Sometimes they are no way near each other. Yet, the teachers never say that an interpretation of ours is wrong. Because literature is all about interpretations and how an individual decides to interpret it. Its good to be a part of a thing where you are not wrong just because your interpretation is different. It is refreshing.”

“I am happy for you.”

“I am too. But I am not happy for future semester me.

“Why is that?”

“Essays. Next semester is essays. Long, boring essays. Essays I don’t want to do anything with.”

“Just like you don’t want to do anything with your siblings and yet you are there to annoy them and protect them.”

“Hmph. That was one time.”

“Really?”

“Okay, fine. It was two times.”

“...”

“Five.”

“...”

“Stop calling me out!”

“Your tea is getting cold.”

Jason takes a sip of his forgotten tea. Ugh. Yes. It has gone cold. “How did you know?”

Talia snorts.

“Have you completed your assignments?”

“I will. Tomorrow.”

“Jason. Deadline.”

“I am resting my eyes. You just told me to.”

“...Are you sipping tea with eyes closed?”

“...No. That is why I forgot because I had closed them earlier and my tea got cold.”

He can’t see T right now but he can practically _see_ her shaking her head at his antics.

“Why are there so many subjects I need to study and make assignments for?”

“You sound bitter.”

“Tell me you need my help with gangs and open fire. No sweat. Tell me I have one more impending assignment... I might want to sleep. Not die. But sleep. Long sleep.”

“Jason.”

“Yes?”

“If you die this time because you did not want to do your assignments, I won’t put you in the pits -”

“Thanks, T!”

“- I will put you in a pool full of broccoli juice and later have you drink a large amount of it separately.”

Jason groans. He can _see_ her smirking.

“Please no.”

“Then don’t die to avoid homework.”

“So many of these people died to burden me with homework.”

“Jay”

“Yeah?”

“Go to sleep.”

He opens his eyes, adjusts the pillows on the bed and pulls his sheets towards him. Turning off the lamp and adjusting the sheets over him, he puts his phone on the bedside drawer with its speaker on. He is going to listen to what his limbs are yelling at him for and T just told him to do. “Mmm...T.”

“Yes, Jay?”

“Can you hum? Please?” he asks. He is tired and sore. T’s voice is soothing. And even her auditory presence currently makes him feel _loved_ . Makes him feel _protected_.

“Sure, son. Now close your eyes.” Jason does just that.

On the other end, his mom is humming a tune he has heard many times from her. She is humming a tune that always calms him. He falls asleep dreaming of the memories of Talia humming to him as he used to lay down to sleep with baby Damian curled around him.

He soon falls asleep. Feeling lighter than he had been before. Before he had returned to his safe house.

He falls asleep and finds peace for the night as his mom hums in the background. That’s also why he misses that she too soon falls asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, bookmarks, and user subscriptions are always welcome and appreciated <3


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